The Armageddon Blog

Author: Adrian

  • How to Tie a Swiss Seat

    There are plenty of knots you can learn that will have much more use and be of more value than the Swiss Seat.  That is, until you need to go climbing or rope crossing.  The Swiss Seat is a makeshift harness that you can use to attach yourself to a rappel or bridge rope in case you don’t have a climbing harness.

    1. First of all, you need a length of rope 6-10 feet in length.
    2. Fold the rope in half, grasping the midpoint.
    3. Place the bight on your left hip.
    4. Wrap the rope around your waist on both sides, ensuring that the midpoint stays over the left hip.
    5. Pull one side under the other to make a half hitch. Repeat so that the rope turns twice around itself. This will eventually be where the carabiner is placed.
    6. Let the free ends of the rope fall to the ground, dangling in front of you.
    7. Reach between your legs from behind and grab each end of the rope in the adjacent hand.
    8. Bring the ends up to the outside edges of your back and tuck the ends under the rope at your waist from the bottom and over.
    9. Simultaneously squat and pull on the rope ends to tighten the seat as much as possible.  Repeat this step until the seat is sufficiently tight.
    10. To maintain the tension, run the ends under themselves from back to front, creating a loop around the waist rope directed back to the front.
    11. Tie the two rope ends into a square knot off-center to the left (to avoid snagging the line you are attaching to).

    This should be uncomfortably tight around your body but not cutting off circulation, and certainly not squeezing… sensitive… regions.  After you’re all tied up, attach a carabiner to the wrap of ropes at the front of your body and then attach it to the line and your ready to go.

  • Found on the Internet: Misconceptions and Applications of the Mini Survival Kit

    I’ll admit it, I’ve fallen into this trap: assuming that a mini survival kit was more than it actually was, or a reasonable replacement for an emergency/disaster kit.  The best thing you can do in regards to a survival kit is to understand what’s in it and what its limits are from a disaster situation:

    The mini survival kit is often misunderstood. I’ve seen some information put forth that might lead people to believe that a mini kit is useless. Yet people like Ron Hood, Doug Ritter and myself, among many others, have recommended them for years — and for good reason.

    Misconceptions and Applications of the Mini Survival Kit via [It’s Tactical]

  • Found on the Internet: How to Make Pace Count Beads

    When performing land navigation, it sometimes becomes difficult to remember everything you need to.  The most vital information being your pace count.  Your pace count gives you an estimate of how far you’ve traveled since your last waypoint.  It gives you an idea of where you are and how far you have to go to the next waypoint.  Trust me when I say that losing your pace count can completely ruin your day, you either have to backtrack to the last waypoint, or completely recalculate your location from a more difficult location.  Having pace count beads, also known as ranger beads, helps you keep track of your pace count and is an immeasurable help in a land navigation scenario.  You can purchase these if you’d like, but in the case that you don’t have them when you need them, yours break inconveniently, or you’re like me and are too cheap to pay for something this easy to make yourself, Instructables.com has an article on how to make your own beads from three simple materials, though you can feasibly fabricate these out of any reasonable material.

    Army Ranger Beads via [Instructables.com]

     

  • Found on the Internet: Thermos Cooking

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMR0rO3bWr4&w=640&h=360]

    Cooking over an open camp fire isn’t exactly the most predictable way to cook.  It’s easy to char the outside of a meal, while leaving the inside raw or under cooked.  Cooking in a pan is even more unpredictable, plus you constantly have to monitor your meal to ensure it doesn’t burn.  However, boiling water over a campfire turns out the same result every time – boiled water.  If you have a thermos, you can add boiling water to your ingredients, let them simmer for a while and when you come back, you’ve got a properly cooked (read unburned) meal waiting for you.

    http://www.thermoscooking.com/

  • Found on the Internet: Homemade, Single Use Antibiotics

    Antibiotics will become an important commodity in the P.A.W.  They can mean the difference between life and death in a world where 1st World medicine isn’t readily available.  Carrying around a full tube of antibiotics can be unwieldy and cumbersome.  Also, if antibiotics are scare/valuable enough, you won’t want to be seen carrying around a large tube of it by anyone else.  There are single use antibiotics commercially available but they are more expensive than it’s worth.  Brian Green, from Brian’s Backpacking Blog, writes a post on how to make your own single use antibiotic packs.

    DIY – Single Use Antibiotic Packs via [Brian’s Backpacking Blog]

  • Found on the Internet: Six Ways to Never Get Lost in the City Again

    Tristan Gooley is a writer, explorer and navigator. He is renowned as a “Natural Navigator,” and he recently wrote an article for BBC News outlining six basic steps for getting your bearings in an urban environment without any instruments.  While his guide is geared towards citizens of the U.K. the principles remain the same and the details of what he writes need only be modified to make it work for wherever you are in the world.

    Six Ways to Never Get Lost in the City Again via BBC News

  • Run For Your Lives!

    Do you like running?  Do you like obstacle courses?  Think you could outlast fast-moving zombies through one for 5km?  Well here’s your opportunity!  Run For Your Lives is a 5k Obstacle course with an added twist – zombies.  Spread throughout the 5k course are 12 obstacles that have to be overcome by the participants while they run away from zombies.  Each participant has a belt with a number of flags attached representing health.  For only $67 you too can test your mettle in a zombie survival situation.

    5K Obstacle Course Zombie Race – Run For Your Lives

  • Found on the Internet: How to Make a Bow from Hardware Store Items

    Having the right tools is important to survival.  Having a bow could be the difference between “making it” and starving to death.  You may not be able to get your hands on a fancy compound bow, but Instructables user dejapong shows us how to build a makeshift bow for less than $20 worth of materials from a hardware store.

    Make a Bow for Under Twenty Bucks [via Instructables]

  • Found on the Internet: How to Survive a Gunshot Wound

    I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Medical treatment is something we take for granted and we really shouldn’t.  Even a simple cut in the P.A.W. can be life-threatening if you don’t treat it.  For something more serious like a gunshot wound it is imperative that you know how to stop the bleeding and treat the wound in order to survive, whether you’re the one shot or not.  The OutdoorLife Survival blog has an article on how to survive being shot.

    While most of you will likely never be in the position that Reeson found himself, the question is worth asking: If, god forbid, you are ever shot, what should you do to survive?

    The short answer is that you survive getting shot with a little bit of luck, some skill, ample trauma first aid supplies, a degree of stubbornness and maybe a little divine providence. 

    How To Survive A Gunshot Wound via [OutdoorLife Survival Blog]

  • TV Review: Stuck With Hackett

    Stuck with Hackett is a show on the Science Channel that follows Chris Hackett around as he builds contraptions out of found materials. Hackett is one of the founders of the Madagascar Society so he is an ideal candidate to host a show like this. Have you guys seen this yet? It’s a brilliant show that shows exactly what you need to know if you’re trying to cope in the PAW. He builds a wood gasifier engine to power a hand cart down a railroad out of what he calls “obtanium”, or as the rest of us call it “found resources”, basically whatever you can find around you.

    The show is in it’s first season and can be seen on the Science Channel on Fridays at 10:30pm EST.